Before new City Manager Fidel Maltez was sworn into office in January, the city council had already approved his plan to overhaul the administrative offices in an effort to improve services to the city’s residents.
That plan included separating the deputy city manager position in two, creating a deputy city manager in charge of operations, and another in charge of finance. It also created a new position in the Director of Constituent Services.
What was then in the planning stages is now a reality, as Deputy City Manager of Operations Devon Fields, Deputy City Manager of Finance Michael Mason, and Director of Constituent Services Bernabe Rodriguez are firmly ensconced in City Hall and looking to make a Chelsea a better place for residents with a more efficient government.
Fields comes to Chelsea from her most recent role as the assistant town administrator in Brookline.
“When I saw this position get posted (in Chelsea), a friend sent it to me and (said) this seems to be exactly what you’re doing here, but on a little bit of a bigger scale in a different form of government and closer to where you live,” said Fields, a Winthrop resident.
Fields said she had been in Brookline for about five years, but was drawn to work in a city like Chelsea with its diverse background.
In a sentiment echoed by Mason and Rodriguez, Fields said she was also drawn in by Maltez and his engaging leadership style. She added that she was further drawn in by the interview process for the position.
“Cities are so political, everyone knows someone, which is how a lot of positions can be filled, and that was not my experience at all,” said Fields. “It was a really fair and thoughtful process, there were multiple rounds, various levels of process oriented, how would you work through a problem … technical questions about skills and background, and I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the offer.”
Both Mason and Rodriguez are Chelsea natives who worked in Chelsea previously before coming back to the city to start their new positions. “I grew up in Chelsea and I worked in Chelsea several times,” said Mason. Mason was most recently the Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations in Arlington. Prior to that, he spent six years in different roles for the Chelsea Public Schools. “What really attracted me to this role was that this was a community that I consider home, I wanted to come back and give back to this community,” said Mason. “In addition to that, I felt when I left here there was unfinished work. I was working on the school side, and when I worked there, it was more about modernization of processes, how to leverage technology, and to improve systems and make more efficiencies.”
Now that he is back in Chelsea as the Deputy City Manager of Finance, Mason said he can address some of those issues citywide. “Let me see how I can bring people together, build relationships to then be able to move forward some of the projects and monitor this. Not just for the school department now, but for the entire city.” Mason said he worked with Maltez briefly before when they were both in Chelsea, and he was excited to extend that partnership.
“His reputation preceded him, so I was thrilled in that sense,” said Mason. “And then coming aboard, I was welcomed by everyone and excited to get this team together to start to make some changes.” Rodriguez was the assistant city clerk in Somerville for two years, and spent five years in various roles with the City of Chelsea.
“I have been working for municipal government my whole career,” said Rodriguez, who started as an intern for the city clerk’s office before working as an executive assistant for former City Manager Tom Ambrosino. Rodriguez said he worked with Maltez previously when Maltez headed the public works department to help launch the city’s 311 program.
“When Fidel was picked as the city manager and this position came about and posted, it just made sense to come back to my community,” said Rodriguez. “When I was in Somerville, although it was great to work there and it’s a great city, I felt like I always missed that connection to seeing the results of my work.” Rodriguez, like Mason and Fields, said he is drawn to Chelsea by the city’s commitment to being forward-thinking and putting systems in place to help residents.
“A lot of people are trying to reel back, and I think from Fidel’s standpoint, his goal and vision for the city is that we have to keep getting better, you set a standard,” said Rodriguez.
While the constituent services position is new, Rodriguez said it consolidates a lot of the work he has done in the past in both Chelsea and Somerville. Much of his work stems from answering concerns from residents, as well as business owners, in making sure they are in touch with the right city departments for their concerns, or making sure they are properly funneled through the application and licensing processes. Rodriguez said there has also been a focus on providing emergency fund assistance for those residents in the city facing major challenges.
“We have been having a lot of fires lately, so there are really some residents who are in dire need, their lives are changing in the snap of a second, and the city has been doing a lot to respond to that,” he said. “I know cities don’t get really involved in a lot of those private matters, and that’s between the homeowner and the tenant, but I think Chelsea set the standard. That is the big thing, how do we help, and to what capacity; even if it is to a small capacity we are going to step in.”
Looking toward the next several years in City Hall; Mason, Fields, and Rodriguez said they are all looking forward to continuing to work with Maltez and the city’s residents and to help put systems in place to provide greater efficiencies for everyone.
“Internally, I would love as a team if we could be more unified to move forward on some of the major improvement projects that we are queuing up,” said Mason. “What that would look like is a more efficient local government for the community here in Chelsea in which we can find ways to save money and ways to operate faster.”
Fields said she has several goals she wants to work on in the coming years, including increasing voter turnout as well as making Chelsea a more attractive place to work. “I want Chelsea to be a premier place to work,” Fields said.
“I want people to say I want to work in Chelsea, and I want those to be residents, I want those to be area issue experts who are at the top of their field who are going to bring us to the next level.” Rodriguez said one of his goals is to train the city’s staff so that they are more familiar with issues across city government and are less siloed.
“That goes across every department, and I think that this is an issue that all municipalities struggle with, is trying to have people know what is going on in other departments or other parts of the city,” said Rodriguez.